C2O Training

So, it sounds like we're all here... And, as I have a particular interest in making sure everybody's up to speed on this, please allow me to insert myself into the training stuff...

We had a great training session last Sunday here in California! You've seen this written about in the newsletter, and in a couple forum entries around CPA, CPS, AOPA, Yahoo:182, etc...

Here's a few things that I'm happy we did right:
1) Decent classroom. Much better than our last year effort. An enclosed space, with a screen and plenty of chairs for participant pilots. I could have made it a bit darker so the screen was more visible, but I forgot about that. Strange thing, 'cause I'm often told (by one person anyway...) that I do my best work in the dark!

2) Lots of clear airspace nearby. I'm always worried about this, and probably more than I need to be worried. Non-tower airport was kind of handy, 'cause I didn't need to worry about runway clearances, etc., but the bad news was that it required a little more heads-up time, especially from my safety pilots, to make sure we were clear of traffic. I finally figured out how to capture a screenshot of a local sectional chart, and overlay on that the practice areas. I highly recommend that this be included in future clinics.

3) Decent food. First year: John Frank flipping burgers in his hangar. Second year: cheesy restaurant, small, crowded, slow. This year: awesome food, reasonably priced. Bad news: I didn't tell my elements to order food before they started their debriefs. Two elements waited until they were done with their debriefs before they ordered food. This made the flight debrief run late.

4) Training sortie pairing. I consciously planned on having high time safety pilots paired with low time pilots, formed up with with higher time pilots and slightly lesser-experienced safeties. I started with matching similar type airplanes. From there, I tried to get a read on experience levels. I figured that high time pilots with high time safeties was not the best use of time. I've since heard from a few that this worked out really well, so I recommend it as a standard practice.

Things I did wrong:
1) Don't pick the Daylight Savings Time weekend. Second year I did that. I should know by now! Time zones don't mean much to me, but I should be aware of this for others.

2) Saturdays may be better. This is the first time I did it on a Sunday, and the result was the same as the last two times I've done it on a Saturday. But, timing was an issue.

3) I thought I drove the classroom session as fast as I could. I'd like to think I'm pretty decent at keeping things going, but still it dragged on a bit. Worst thing was that I had to have element assignments done before I could brief the training sorties. Can't do that until I know who is there. Training staff needs to have a handle on who should be paired with whom, because I'd like to have that sorted out by the end of the classroom portion.

For the flight debrief at the end, plan on discussing at length how the training scenario is different from the OSH flight. Start with the fact that nobody will be changing position. Continue with the fact that more experienced pilots will tend to be slotted in lead positions. Talk about the inter-element spacing, and that the PIC of the lead elements of each faster type will need to be aware of the extra gap at takeoff.

We probably need to discuss the landing situation in much more detail. In particular: If there is room between you and the airplane in front of you, "hover taxi" or fly down the runway before you land. Make sure everybody knows there is another airplane right behind you that needs the runway, and if you're comfortable continuing down the runway in the air before you chop and drop, then do that. Don't dirty up on final and slow down to your slowest speed. We all know that we can fly slower and land shorter, but again, this is a team sport. Cooperate and graduate. Leave space for the umpteen airplanes right on your tail. At my clinic, everybody seemed to understand this fact, and it worked well for us. I think this point needs to be underlined during the OSH brief.

Undoubtedly, more to follow, and I'm happy to hear comments from others who lead clinics about how to get these points across, and from participant pilots about what makes them feel uncomfortable. We all need to come to agreement on what we feel we can do, and we need to be comfortable in telling each other when something doesn't feel right. Even more important (and a major point I tried to drive home at my clinic) is that you have to listen up during the preflight brief, and if you don't like something that is specified, either speak up and get your point addressed, or man up and drop out.